Communicating With Your Customers

One hurdle we’ve always struggled to overcome, as property managers, is how do we maintain an open and transparent line of communication with our customers? We spend so much time representing our customers in the work we do, we struggle to keep communication as a focal point. Communication is not just about the passing of information from one person to another. It is how we build relationships and demonstrate value to our clients.

Communication is not just about the passing of information from one person to another.

Less formal methods of communication, such as chat apps & text messaging are redefining the way we communicate with each other. It takes the formality out of long formatted emails that often end up convoluted and confusing. I would say that if an email went back and forth more than three times, ambiguity is starting to take place. We should probably pick up the phone to remove any further confusion. In contrast, chat allows us to focus on a single subject with specific back and forth messages to solve a problem quickly. Shorter, more direct chat messages will enable us to reply promptly, even when we are on the run.

I would say that if an email went back and forth more than three times, ambiguity is starting to take place.

Communication plays four very important roles when delivering on your customer’s expectations;

• Improving your level of communication
• Demonstrating your perceived level of expertise
• Delivering your value for money proposition
• Increasing your level of Helpfulness

Communicating with our customers is the backbone to building relationships and delivering value. The way we communicate is what makes this tool our biggest asset. Take a proactive approach to keeping your clients informed. Get ahead of processes to ensure they are informed and aware of events affecting their investment. When leasing a property ensure they are receiving regular updates at specific times including when the old tenant is vacating, outcomes and feedback of prospective new tenant inspections, and any potential marketing conditions affecting the lease of their property.

Communicating with our customers is the backbone to building relationships and delivering value.

The importance of real-time time communication is now an expectation from our customers. Tools like chat & text demands a timely response to ensure you don’t keep your customers hanging. If you don’t have an answer to their question, a short, simple response letting them know you will find the answer and respond to them later will do the trick. This doesn’t mean throwing email or phone out the window. Both of those communication tools still play an important role in building relationships and delivering value to your customers.

If you don’t have an answer to their question, a short, simple response letting them know you will find the answer and respond to them later will do the trick.

We often ask ourselves if our customers know how complex our jobs are. I can’t help but feel this may be partly our fault. Articulating our level of expertise to our customers comes with keeping them informed on decisions that have an impact on their investment. We know that our customers employ us to navigate the complex path of property management on their behalf. However, this doesn’t mean we should exclude them from the process.

Articulating our level of expertise to our customers comes with keeping them informed on decisions that have an impact on their investment.

Defining value for our customers is imperative to maintaining long term relationships. Our customers are no different from ourselves. If we don’t see value in a service, we are likely to either discontinue that service or ask for a discount. Value for money is created by being transparent in the work we are doing. Review each process and work out where you should be building in extra customer touchpoints to keep your clients informed.

Our customers are no different from ourselves.

Sometimes helpfulness may seem hard to define. What does helpfulness mean? Helpfulness can be broken down into two categories. The first is going above and beyond for your customer. Don’t just wait to be asked, go the extra mile to ensure they are promoters of your service. Say you are asked to get two quotes for a new hot water system and both quotes are quite different. Don’t wait for your customer to ask for a third, be proactive and get a third quote so you can confidently recommend a solution at the best value for them.

Don’t just wait to be asked, go the extra mile to ensure they are promoters of your service.

The second category of helpfulness is related to how we manage risk on our customer’s behalf. Property management has a large component of risk that may expose our clients to litigation or affect the condition and financial return of the property. Our job is to have the expertise to manage this risk for them. We manage risk by having a good understanding of the problem we are trying to solve. We then communicate this to our customers, with our recommendation, to resolve the issue.

Our job is to have the expertise to manage this risk for them.

Going above and beyond, and managing risk is core to strengthening our level of helpfulness for our customers. However, communicating our knowledge in these areas is what betrays our level of helpfulness to them. Consider how your customers perceive this each time you are working on a complex task for them.

Going above and beyond, and managing risk is core to strengthening our level of helpfulness for our customers.

In the past communication often got deprioritised for work, however, this is where you demonstrate most of your value to your customers. Consider building a communication plan to help define how you engage with your customers.

Consider building a communication plan to help define how you engage with your customers.